Warhammer 40K: Kill Team – New ‘Elite’ Rules Just Lets You Roll Better
Warhammer 40K: Kill Team is getting two new Kill Teams and the Kasrkins are just plain better at “rolling dice” than anyone else.
I’m not quite sure how to feel about GW dipping more into the whole “dice manipulation point pool” for armies. Before I get into why I don’t like it you should probably see how the rule works first.
“Chosen from the cream of Cadia’s crop, Kasrkin personify the word ‘elite’. Their martial excellence translates directly into Kill Team, where the Elite special rule gives them a pool of 10 points to spend fudging dice rolls in their favour. Who needs luck when you’re this good?”
Basically, each time a Kasrkin makes an attack you get to choose if you want to spend an Elite point to bump a roll by 1. Now, there are some limits — like you can only “adjust” one roll and only one roll. And this pool is also limited to 10. At least at the start of the game. Because, of course, they have a way to get points back.
Being able to choose after the roll if you want to increase the attack by 1 is kind of a big deal. And having ways to generate these points back is also really convenient. Couple that with the fact that you can do this each time you attack (albeit to only 1 die per attack) this makes the Kasrkin a very reliable Kill Team.
Thanks. I hate it.
From a lore perspective the Kasrkin are super elite troopers. They get all the special training, tactics, and gear. They are the super troopers of the Astra Militarum! But you’re telling me they are better and more reliable than a Space Marine?
Kasrkin – even more Elite than a Classic Tactical Marine.
And from a gameplay perspective this makes them so reliable it’s going to be frustrating to play against. They start with 10 in the pool and if the Sergeant makes it to the end, that’s another 6* points they get to add. That’s 16 possible attacks that are going to magically hit when they probably should have missed. “Oh that’s not a lot of attacks and you just have to kill the Sergeant so they don’t get the extra!” Sure. It’s not like a player is going to hide the Sergeant all game to just use them as a battery as the rest of the Kill Team does the real work or anything…
*Update – double checked the math on the Sergeant, it’s only 2 per Strategy phase so that’s 6 extra over the course of the game for a total of 16 Elite Points. That’s a lot less than the 26…but see next point:
Also, this is KILL TEAM. There aren’t that many models in a typical game. Those extra reliable shots are going to add up quick. I really hope this rule doesn’t make the jump to 40k proper because it would only scale upwardly.
Look, I’m just not a fan of armies that can manipulate the dice like this. I’m actually fine with re-rolls over “just add 1” points from a magical pool. I like this even less than Faith/Fate dice of Adepta Sororitas and Disciples of Tzeentch. And I’m certainly not a fan of those systems either. This doesn’t require a model to be in range for an Aura. This doesn’t require you to declare you’re using the ability before the attack is made. These Elite Points are just free “get out of jail” points to spend on attacks that should have missed but now don’t.
I was really excited about these models. Now I’m going to dread seeing them across the tabletop from me because every attack dice roll is going to be an opportunity for them to “fudge” the numbers. No one likes “gotcha” moments and this is just a pool of “gotcha” points to spend. No thank you.
What do you think of Elite Points? Are they fine/meh/bad? Let us know where you stand in the comments.
